Night Has Fallen
by Wishsight
Summary: Gaea has been defeated. The world is safe, but that doesn't mean its inhabitants are. A new threat has arisen, but the war-ready demigods are unprepared, because this time the danger is inside. Percy and Annabeth, modern day's greatest heroes try to understand the threat, but it has already understood too much about them. There is one question left: Will they survive the night?
1. Prologue

**Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson and the Olympians nor do I own the Heroes of Olympus. Poop.**

**I hope you enjoy this short prologue. The first chapter will be posted in a couple of hours.**

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**"Free at last". **

A shadowy figure immerges from a tunnel in the middle of central park. Behind her, stars flicker to some unheard rhythm. She spreads her arms wide taking in the night, and even if only for a fraction of a second, upon her arrival New York City had gone completely silent. Then, for the first time, the silhouette smiles with pearl white teeth.

"Mother," she says to no one in particular "I will finally see the day"

Suddenly, the girl turns and her strange eyes widen in fear. The crevice she came from lets out a wail from deep within. Every star goes black.

The mysterious person kneels down and clutches her ears. Around her the park starts to darken as waves of black roll off her.

"Hemera is a fool" Another person is standing in the small clearing. Not as dark as the first, but he gives off an aura of malice. "And so are you Skia. You are not one of them, you never will be."

The girl, Skia, lets go of the sides of her head and wraps her hands around herself. She starts to scream. Tears stream down the sides of her face. Then, she stops sobbing hastily and goes silent. Skia stands up.

"Momos you have lost your edge." She says, but there are still tearstains on her cheeks.

The man laughs and his eyes glitter evilly. "You of all people should know how dangerous your mother is. The Night has fallen." With that, Momos disappears, his being seemingly absorbed by the night sky. The girl collapses on the ground

A tree rustles. Skia turns. A pale-faced boy steps, quite literally, out of the shadows. "Don't listen to him" He walks over. Skia doesn't move. "Hemera's your sibling too right? You are one of the better children." The girl on the ground sighs, but accepts his hand to lift her up. "If only I could believe you Nico." The pair melts into the shadows.

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**Voilà, although this post is very short, constructive criticism is always welcome.**

**All the mythological figures in this story, such as Momos, are real parts of greek mythology. Except for Skia who is of my own invention (and will not be the main character). **

**The rest of the story will be in Percy's point of view. **

**- Wishsight**


	2. The Terrible Beginning

**Dislamer: I did not, do not, and will not own PJO or HoO. Sniffle.**

**Here you go, Chappie number 1**

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**"Percy!"** I don't want to move. My mind is so foggy with sleep it takes me a little bit until I recognize the voice. Rachel the oracle. Oh goody, another prophecy foretelling my imminent death. Can't it wait 'till the morning?

"Percy get your lazy butt out here!" Apparently not. I get up, put on a shirt and take a second or two to decide if I can get away with going outside in my pajama pants. I look at my clock. It reads 4:00 AM and I decide that it's a miracle I'm getting out of bed in the first place. So, I walk outside without heed to my wardrobe.

The first person to greet me is Annabeth, Rachel was nowhere to be seen. She grabs my hand and leads me to the strawberry fields. Once there, I find the opposite of what I expected. All the demigods, with outfits no better than mine, are standing in a wide circle. They all let me through, an advantage of being the universe's unluckiest demigod.

At the center of the ring stands a son of Nemesis I've seen around camp. His eyes are wild with untamed fear like a caged animal's. Underneath is a feeling I know all too well: utter despair.

He holds a dark blade at his own neck and his hands are shaking. No one has dared to move forward, but I do. As soon as I take a step closer the boy turns to look at me with his haunted eyes.

"Percy Jackson. What do you fight for?" His voice is steely calm, not matching his demeanor. I'm honestly not sure what to respond. I fight for Annabeth, freedom, Annabeth, survival, Annabeth… But I have a feeling those are not the answers he's looking for.

"The world has become worse than the fields of punishment, you, of all demigods should know how cruel the fates could be Perseus. Join me." Join him in what? Killing myself? No thanks, I have a lineup of monsters already willing to kill me, and they don't need any help.

But a small part of my brain agrees. Wouldn't I rather my death be quick and painless, expected, instead of constantly fearing that one day will be my last? I've had these thoughts before, but they were not completely my own. I remember Tartarus, the River of despair. One look at Annabeth shows me that she remembers the same thing. Things are going well now, two years of monster attacks, but no major primordial beings trying to kill everybody. Why would depression hit him now?

"My mother has lied to us all, we do not get what we deserve, we deserve better."

When he says this, he starts slowly pushing the blade into his throat. I run towards him. I don't know what I expect to do, but I definitely can't let him kill himself. Demigods are all about survival, training, fighting, and running.

I know that I'm too slow, because within a fraction of a second. The front of the boy's shirt is drenched in blood and he teeters.

He eyes widened with surprise, as if he didn't expect a knife to the neck to kill him, and he hastily throws the weapon away. He keels over on the ground with a small plea. "Help." The other half-bloods, always prepared for emergencies have him surrounded by the sons of Apollo within seconds.

No amount of ambrosia can reverse death, and it's already too late.

Everyone stays silent. We are too used to death, but never like this. Chiron advances to clean up and give the boy a proper burial shroud. I never even learned his name.

Then, Rachel taps my shoulder. "Also, Percy, I hate to make the mood worse, but there is a prophecy you should probably hear."

And so we summon the elite counsel.

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**Hope it was to your liking. Flames are permitted, although swear words are frowned upon by this writer. Just sayin'**

**I will try to post again before Xmas, but if not have a happy holiday.**

**-Wishsight**


	3. The Ominous Prophecy

**Disclaimer: Rick Riordan owns PJO and HoO, and I do not own Rick Riordan. **

**May I now present you with Chapter 2**

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**Apollo certainly did a good job with Rachel's cave.** If it weren't for the ominous predictions and green smoke, this place would feel cozy. Although we have our war council around the Ping-Pong table, when a prophecy comes around there is an elite group of demigods who have been at camp for over five years that meet to discuss it. We also decide if we hold a war council, initiate a quest, or immediately call the Romans.

After our peace treaty with the Romans, the two camps mainly stuck to themselves, but we visited each other sometimes and held a council when something that seemed to affect both camps came up.

Right now I was enjoying a nice cup of hot chocolate. I topped it off with a mountain of whipped cream ignoring the look Annabeth gave me. When there is a possibility of you dying every day, you try to enjoy what you can.

"Where is he?" Clarisse growled. Nico was late. Again. Now, technically Nico had not been here for five _whole_ years because of his many days in the Underworld, but no one mentioned it. That kid had seen worse things than I had. That's saying something.

"I'm right here." Half of us jumped. Travis yelped in a very undignified manner. Katy snickered at him. Nico was calmly sitting in a beanbag chair in the corner of the room. He fiddled with his skull ring, the ghost of a smile playing on his lips then, he looked at me and the smirk was replaced by an expressionless gaze. I stifled a sigh. Nico still resented me for the death of his sister. Well, he didn't tell me who I was when we met at camp Jupiter either.

Rachel walked out of the back cave with a puff of green smoke. Even she enjoyed the occasional dramatic entrance. She sat down cross-legged on the screened bed in the corner. The oracle said what was on all of our minds: "So…"

"Does the prophecy have anything to do with Connor killing himself?" Asked Connor, who stifled a small sob. Since the Stoll was still sitting right there, I assumed the name of the son of Nemesis had also been Connor. That's probably why Connor had met Connor. Or had Conner been the first to see Conner? Ow! My brain.

For some reason the name made the whole thing feel a lot more real.

"I think it might." At those words she pulled the curtain on her white magic wall, a gift from Hecate. On it there were scrawled hundreds of predictions. The old and completed ones were gray getting lighter as they got older, and the current few from quests happening now were green. The newest one would appear in the middle in a random colour, taking the place of its predecessor as soon as Rachel uttered them. This time the words were pitch black.

**_Mockery, misery, doom, discord, and deceit_**

**_The children of darkness, innocents shall meet _**

**_When they invade the strongest hero's mind_**

**_Then the greatest immortals will turn blind _**

**_The Greek fires no longer alight_**

**_The realm shall turn to endless night_**

Jake Mason was the first to speak. "Cheerful" he said with about a gallon of sarcasm. I couldn't agree more.

With that we went into prophecy dissection mode. The first line was pretty straightforward, we all agreed. There would be mockery, misery, doom, discord, and deceit, just an average day. There were about a million children of darkness we could think of, and a few campers turned to look at Nico. In response he raised an eyebrow like _really guys? Not cool. _Other suggestions were thrown around. Furies, Titans…

Annabeth and I didn't say anything. We had seen so many things in Tartarus that could be the children of darkness, like the children of Night… The children of the night! The _arai_, and all the gods that had been there. I shivered involuntarily. Good thing everyone else was so busy arguing, so only Annabeth noticed, and she seemed to have reached the same conclusion I had. We kept our mouths shut.

"Who are the innocents?" Theories were sent back and forth. Complete mortals, people who've never killed anything, kids. That last one hit me hard. Just kids sent through what I had gone through. That was a terrible thought.

As soon as Chris mentioned the next line, all eyes turned to Annabeth and me. Actually, all the girls looked at Annabeth and all the guys looked at me. Funny, even after all this, there is still a small boys vs. girls thing going on.

"You know how prophecies are, we can't jump to conclusions, for all we know Hercules is going to show up and have his mind controlled. Just like Percy wasn't the hero of the Great prophecy with the Titan war." Pointed out Annabeth.I knew she was right, Annabeth never admitted not knowing something unless she was completely certain that she couldn't be completely certain. That totally makes sense.

Still that not being the hero comment still stung a little. Wise girl could tell and gave me an apologetic peck on the cheek.

When my girlfriend said that, we realized how useless it was to sit here discussing it. Usually we had something to go on, like a big storm or a battle, or even the gods coming directly to see us and say, "There is a problem". I remember Mars' prophecy from my time at Camp Jupiter:

"Go to Alaska.

Find Thanatos and free him.

Come back by sundown on June twenty-fourth or die."

Frank complained that that wasn't a real prophecy, but we could use one of the really obvious ones right now. Sure we had the events of this morning as a clue, but that was practically nothing.

"We'll call the Romans as soon as we know more."

I know Annabeth hated not knowing, and I didn't like it very much either. This thing was already meddling with my mind. If I was the strongest hero mentioned in the prophecy, we didn't stand much of a chance. I was already starting to unravel.

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**Dun Dun Dun...**

**I managed to finish this early. Woot! **

**Anyway, the next chapter will certainly be posted towards the end of the week.**

**Yours in fanfictioness,**

**-Wishsight **


	4. The Raging Flames

**Disclaimer: I do not own any of the awesome books. I must have lost like ten dollars worth of pennies wishing I did. I should get a life. **

**Nah! I'll just write some fanfiction. Enjoy!**

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**The early afternoon took with it a daughter of Iris. **She hung herself from the sparkly roof of her cabin. You can tell things have gotten bad when the children that worship rainbows commit suicide.

The truth was that no one knew what to do.

I was taking it out on a training dummy that was now stabbed multiple times in the chest, missing his limbs and decapitated. Wise Girl prefers to try to figure things out, and that was what she was doing now, creating some sort of Venn diagram for what the deaths could have in common. I find sword fighting helps clear my head.

Finished and sweaty, I was walking by the woods on my way to the showers when I smelled smoke. There was a fire in the woods. I did the most logical thing, I ran towards it. I'm starting to realize why Annabeth calls me impulsive. As I got closer I heard a weak voice coming from somewhere beyond.

"Gods! Help me!" Leo Valdez. I've never heard Leo sound so desperate. I sprinted towards the voice, imagining all the worst scenarios in my head.

I found the son of Hephaestus at the center of a raging inferno in the middle of the woods. It took me a second to get over my confusion. Leo Valdez can't get burnt. Maybe his powers were like mine. If I wanted to get wet I would, if he wanted to become charbroiled he could.

Then I realized he was struggling under some weight. Without a second that, I had the creek explode and douse from him head-to-toe. Poseidon powers. Gotta love 'em. As the enormous curtain of steam evaporated, I ran forward.

I was met by the sight of my friend, his face covered in soot and scratches. On his back was someone I did know: Nyssa, Leo's half sister on the godly side of things. She was unconscious and so severely burned that her skin gleamed a fiery red, but her chest was moving however weakly.

I put one of her arms over my shoulder and Leo took the other. As soon as we walked back into camp, she was put onto a stretcher and brought to the big house. Everyone started crowding us asking what had happened. The paparazzi had nothing on a group of ADHD demigods. Leo fell down next to me and put his head in his hands. I had assumed that this was all part of the mind-invasion thing, but it occurred to me know that my bud may have started the fire.

Annabeth ran up and kissed my forehead before asking if I was okay. I nodded. Gods, I loved her. And then, I felt like a jerk for briefly forgetting about my friend.

"Leo, are you okay?" He looks at me. For a second he's just sad, but then his stare becomes a glare.

"You don't get it do you?" He sounds hurt. Then he stalks off. That is the most un-leo like thing he's ever done. Even when he isn't all right he'll just brush it off with a joke or two.

I give an apologetic look to Annabeth and follow him. I find him slouched against the back of the Hephaestus cabin. I sit next to him, only then realizing how tired I am. Summoning the creek and carrying Nyssa took away most of my energy. Soon though, Leo starts talking. Like me, he can't stay silent for long.

"I didn't start it, but I couldn't stop it." I know he's talking about the fire. I nod.

That seems to make him madder.

"You act like you get it but you don't!" he continues before I can interject.

"If someone is drowning you can just send him a freaking air bubble. If I see a fire there is nothing I can do to make it stop. If you accidentally send a tidal wave, you can make it recede. That might take practice, but at least it's possible. I've asked my dad and my powers are basically withstanding and summoning fire. I can't heal burns or make flames die. Have you ever drowned someone by accident Percy?"

I immediately think of Beckendorf. He had died in water. But I hadn't put him there, and the main cause of his death was an explosion. Of course I had drowned more than my fair share of monsters, but that wasn't an accident. The answer was no. I didn't even have to say it.

"Than don't pretend to understand" He got up and went into his cabin. I didn't follow. With all these suicides, Leo's attitude worried me. When one of his siblings came out, I asked them to keep an eye on him and they said they would.

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Wise Girl got the sense I needed a break, so we sat at the pier, our feet in the water. She complained that her calculations had yielded little results and she was frustrated. I think the naiads that would occasionally surface to flirt with me weren't improving her mood, but what can I say? It's not my fault I'm awesome. And modest.

"Wanna spar?" I always say 'wanna' because it annoys her, correcting me and calling me a Seaweed Brain seems to lighten up her mood.

"Yes I _want to_, Kelp-for-brains, prepare to lose."

"Oh yeah? We're in my territory Wise Girl."

And the duel commences. Annabeth presses me with her new dagger from the armory so I'm having trouble blocking it with Riptide. Then, I bring my sword back to pen form and hook it around her blade as I make it become a weapon again, sending her dagger to the ground. She's gotten better, but so have I. Then, in one fluid motion, my girlfriend trips me and picks up her dagger, pointing it at the back of my neck, the only thing I can do is…

I'm now facing the water so I summon a wave that knock Annabeth back. I whirl around and we continue to jab at each other. The dock is now slippery, making fighting even harder, and I catch myself about to fall a few times. Finally Annabeth makes a wrong moves and skids. She falls and I point Riptide at her neck. Annabeth raises her arms in mock surrender. Ha! That won't fool me for the seventeenth time.

Of course, she swats me across the face and I lose my balance, falling beside her and the next thing I know, we're on top of each other, kissing.

Someone clears his throat. We simultaneously look up to see a very embarrassed looking Daughter of Apollo, and Will Solace giving me a small thumbs up. Despite his attempt at humour, I can tell something is wrong. Annabeth and I hastily get up.

"It's Nyssa." I know right away the news isn't good.

"I only left for a second." Continues Rebecca, the daughter of the god of poetry. "When I got back, she… she…"

"Nyssa suffocated herself by tying a sheet around her neck" Finished Will. "We're about to burn the funeral pyre." Annabeth and I follow them up the hill, our brief moment of happiness forgotten.

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**I could not resist putting in a Percabeth moment.**

**I named Rebecca after my friend (if you read this, you're welcome) because I can't have a thousand nameless characters just because their names weren't in the books.**

**The next chapters is when the real action starts. Yeah! 'till then, this is Wishsight signing off.**

P.S. a review or two might give this not-really-an-author extra motivation, just sayin'. And any critiques would help make this story better.


	5. The Enchanted Wall

**Disclaimer:**

**Me: Percy, please do the honours **

**Percy: Wishsight does not own PJO or HoO, nor does she own Percy Jackson or any others of Rick Riordan's characters.**

**Me: Thanks Percy**

**Percy: I have a question**

**Me: Yes?**

**Percy: How come you can tell me to do things when you don't own me?**

**Me: Umm...**

**While we get this awkward situation cleared up, please enjoy Chapter 4**

**Oh, and happy new year!**

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**Smoke filled the air, obliterating the stars. **Tonight there were three shrouds engulfed in flames: One for Connor son of Nemesis, one for the daughter of Iris, Jacqueline, and one for Nyssa. We spoke with their siblings, and the two campers had never shown any signs of sadness in the past few months.

"Jacqueline was always smiling. In the two years that she's been here, I haven't even seen the ghost of a frown on her face." Confirmed Butch.

Everyone was sitting in a circle with their heads bowed. Some had tears on their cheeks, but all were silent. The elite counsel had decided to withhold the prophecy for a little while. Moods were already low enough. Yet we did give a warning to beware of thoughts that were not your own.

I was grateful for Annabeth's hand in mine, and for a moment the quiet was peaceful instead of eerie. That was before a siren and a battle call interrupted it. That could only mean one thing. There were monsters along the border.

Seven eighths of the camp stood up to head to the camp wall, whereas the final few stayed seated in grief. That's fine. I'm sure roughly 300 demigods could deal with a monster or two.

Wise Girl and I were some of the first ones there. We were met with a terrifying sight. A few campers from the Ares cabin that had been assigned as border guards were fighting _aurai_. Those terrible things from Tartarus had found the camp. With every strike the campers were feeling pain greater than or equal to their own blows. This was one time where the peace loving children of Iris or Demeter would have been better fighters for they weren't as violent. Just as I was about to run in, wondering why no one else was, Annabeth held me back and pointed at a message that somehow stuck to the invisible camp wall.

**Stay**

**Point of no return**

**If you leave you can never go back **

It was, of course like all foreboding messages, written in blood. Fresh blood. Seriously? What's wrong with a sharpie?

A shiver went up my spine. I hate to say it, but I was a little too content with not going out to fight the winged beasts.

I heard a war cry. "Stop fighting! Get inside the camp!" Clarisse, she never ordered a retreat. I spotted the daughter of the god of war surrounded be three _aurai_. She had killed many monsters and with each strike, she gasped in pain.

The other members of the Ares cabin ran up the hill. They smacked right into the camp wall. It wouldn't let them in. The pounded their fists against it to no avail. Swords bounced of it without so much as a squeak.

Slowly the winged demons began picking them off one by one, and all we could do was watch. A few campers ran out to find themselves trapped outside as well.

"Clarisse!" shouted Chris, materializing beside me. He thrust his hand through the wall. I pulled him back but he wouldn't budge. Not because he was stubborn but because his hand was stuck. He couldn't bring it back. Both my girlfriend and I had to restrain him to stop him from going further outside.

Suddenly, the darkness of night seemed to become thicker. A funnel cloud seemed to descend from the sky and slowly form an outline. Within seconds there was a figure standing atop the hill facing away from us. I heard Nico say a small "yes!" from somewhere to my left. It was a girl with long black hair that flowed even if there was no wind. Her skin was pale with a greyish tint to it and scars wound their way up her arms before disappearing under the sleeves of her t-shirt.

Before anyone even had the chance to be confused she raised both hands and the stars seemed to unknit themselves from the sky to form twin hunting knives like those the Huntresses used right inside her palms. But these seemed more sinister.

She jumped into battle and approached Clarisse. Chris Rodriguez was screaming and fighting us now. He kicked me in the shin, but I was too concerned to notice. The figure lunged and missed Clarisse by only a few inches, impaling an _aurai_ instead. At first I thought she had only missed her mark, yet the girl seemed unfazed as she began killing the demons. So she was on our side. Or just wanted to save us so she could kill us later. Personally, I prefer the former.

Aware of the new threat, the _aurai _started to leave the campers alone and move to swarm her. They were hissing what sounded like "Ah ski ah ski ah ski." They were scared of skis? I though the girl was toast. When Annabeth and I had fought the _aurai _the only reason we didn't die was because we had a friendly Titan on our side, but maybe this was goddess? She lacked the electricity most immortals give off, yet something about her was powerful.

The beasts started chanting something I could understand. "Traitor, always alone. Your powers are useless, never come home." To which the girl responded easily: "I wasn't planning on it." And skewered another monster. They continued to taunt her and some of their comments were harsh, to say the least.

Goddess or not, she was the best fighter I had ever seen. Her strikes were powerful like Clarisse's, risky like mine, and when each sequence of moves finished with another monster dead, it reminded me of Annabeth's cunning. The curses didn't seem to affect her. Surrounded by monster dust she was unscathed when all the _aurai_ were dead. Except for a small scratch or two and her original scars.

It was only then did she turn and I saw her face. A few people stifled a scream. One side of her face was shredded. Four thick scars went from her temple to the hem of her shirt through half of her mouth as if someone had scratched her with long nails. Her eye on that side was closed and indented. I assumed that it couldn't open. Honestly, it was her other eye that freaked me out the most. I thought Annabeth's eyes were startling, like they were constantly accessing you. This new arrival's iris on her remaining eye was dark blue and the pupil was ringed with silver.

Her eye travelled over us. Not like she was calculating our strength or our skill, but like she was drawing our souls out, dissecting them, and then putting them back. She could tell our fears, our triumphs, our faults… Hopefully it was just my imagination.

I think she noticed everyone was staring at her. She bowed over-formally.

"I am Skia, daughter of darkness, betrayer of evil and slayer of scary stuff." A pause. Despite the scars through her mouth, her words were clear. Although it did give her speech an odd accent."Yeah, let's go with that. At your service."

The only words that registered in my mind were 'daughter of darkness' _Children of darkness innocents shall meet. _

Then, Skia thrust her hand in front of my face, and all I could see was black.

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**Small cliffhanger. I can see why Rick Riordan uses these so much, they're fun to write, and make me feel diabolical. Mouhaha.**

**And with that, I complete another chapter. **

**Percy: You never answered my question.**

**Me: ... Because we're friends?**

**Percy: We're friends?**

**Me: Yes..?**

**Percy: Okie dokie stranger-that's-somehow-my-friend.**

**This is Wishsight walking slowly away before Percy realizes how gullible he is. Have a great life until we meet again.**


	6. The Dark Child

**Yeah! Holidays are over! *sarcasm***

**Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson and the Olympians or the Heroes of Olympus, but this story scenario is mine. I swear it on the river Styx.**

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**I was suddenly struck by how peaceful the darkness was. **Annabeth dragged me backwards, and I could see that Skia's black web was sticking to our force field. It seemed to be eating away at it. Before any of us could decide whether to attack or not, the dark ink had formed the shape of a door.

"C'mon. Everybody in. Unless you want to stay outside until the _aurai_ come back." No one budged. Skia sighed in annoyance. "Seriously, I can't move my hand or your way back in will close again." Still all the campers outside stared at her like she was an alien. Considering all of the monsters we had dealt with, this meant she was very good at being abnormal.

Clarisse said what was on all of our minds.

"How can we trust you?"

"You should, I just saved your butt." The old Clarisse would have strangled her without hesitation, but the seasons of war had turned the daughter of Ares less rash. Seeing this was getting nowhere, Nico appeared beside me. His shoulders were squared and his breathing even.

"I'm not afraid of the dark." He was about to leave the dome when I grabbed his shoulder. He stiffened even more. I asked him if he could go outside and shadow travel everyone back inside, instead of trusting this strange girl. His answer was no.

"If it were possible it would take me at least four hours to get everyone here while taking breaks to stop from passing out. Monsters already smell us. And I'm not sure how these walls work, so shadow travel might even be impossible. She's our best bet." It hurt how curt his voice was, like he wanted to get talking to me over with.

With that, DiAngelo passed the transparent limits beside the door. He nodded to Skia, who actually looked grateful, then the son of Hades walked through the door.

Then he was next to me again, unscathed. The others outside still looked doubtful, not all of them trust Nico, but I do, and I know the others would follow me.

I eased out of Annabeth's usual death grip and took a step outside. I felt a gust of cool air on my face as all the campers looked at me expectantly. I took a deep breath and walked through the dark doorway. I felt the weight of the sky on my shoulders again, for a mere moment. I almost panicked. Then, one one-thousandth of a second later, I was back in camp. Annabeth hugged me, and then gave me a glare that clearly said: _If you risk your life walking through a stranger's door thing again, I'll punch you. _I looked at Skia and she nodded, and whispered:

"Well done Perseus Jackson." She paused. "I mean _Percy_ Jackson."

I could've sworn Nico nodded approvingly. Whether it was to my walking through the doorway or Skia correcting herself after calling me Perseus I was unsure. But I wondered how she knew my name. Only friends and people who would like to kill me know my name, and I wasn't sure which one she was.

Clarisse, who still hated being upstaged by me, stalked through the dark doorway. She was soon followed by all the other Ares campers and Chris, who had run outside in order to free his hand. Some of them reached our side with slightly slumped shoulders and gritted teeth. So the weight of the world hadn't been my imagination.

The last campers were trickling in, getting more and more confident as nothing bad happened. There was only one left, Clovis, the son of Hypnos. I don't know what he was doing outside the camp, at least without a pillow. There was something unreadable in his features.

"Death is an endless sleep." He shoved his hand through the hole. He shrieked, and I heard a crunching. The pressure. The only reason we were fine was that we had gone through quickly. Now the bones in his arm were splintering, few fingers that had passed the barrier were curling in on themselves in the opposite direction of where the joints were supposed to go.

"Fool!" Skia moved to shove him, but Clovis thrashed and slid to the far end of the door so she couldn't reach him without moving her hand, that she had stated needed to stay there for the door to remain open. She shouted at us not to pull him through, it was too dangerous, but her voice faltered. The son of Hypnos was murmuring something. Skia started to sway, getting sleepy, but shook her head and was fine.

"You are a son of Hypnos", she murmured, "That makes me your aunt. Resist them, you of all demigods should know how important it is to resist temptation." It was interesting. Clovis constantly slept, but here was this stranger talking to him as if he were a great warrior.

I also absorbed this new tidbit of information Hypnos and Skia both had a shared parent or two. Who was Hypnos' mother or father? A glance at Annabeth told me she knew, her face had paled considerably.

In response, the crazed half-blood walked entirely into the doorway. I could see his mouth widen into a silent scream as he simply stood there. His face started to crumble.

I was about to drag Clovis through despite her warnings, but just then, Skia let go of the side of the wall and pushed herself off. Within a split second she had careened into Clovis and shoved him through just as the door closed. For a moment, she was frozen inside the wall. Her face showed exhilaration instead of fear, and there was a foreign twinkle in her single eye as she disintegrated into darkness.

She was gone, as quickly as she had arrived, and Skia had left us with the son of Hypnos, eyes staring sightlessly upwards, not to mention the dead campers outside we were too afraid to fetch, for we weren't sure if we could make it back. I already heard monsters growling.

"We're all monsters." It was Rachel. I looked at her quizzically.

"Something must have messed with the force field's definition of monster. It thinks we're all monsters."

"Maybe we are." Nico said, ignoring the questioning glances Annabeth, Rachel and I gave him.

The dejected campers headed back to say their final goodbyes to the ashes of the funeral pyres or try to get a semblance of sleep in their cabins. Children of Hypnos and Apollo carried Clovis away, while friends of those dead outside stared at the invisible wall as if they could will it to disappear. When the majority of people were gone, I asked Annabeth who were Hypnos' parents. Her reply was delivered with so much foreboding that I shivered.

"He only had a mother: Night."

I've never been more relieved to see the sun start to peek over the horizon.

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**Okay, some sources say the Erebus and Nyx instead of just Nyx as Hypnos' parents, but for this story I will ignore Erebus (sorry powerful one, please don't curse me). I will try to stay as true as possible to Greek Mythology but I will also simplify it in order to not give myself a headache. I apologize to all you fellow mythology nerds. (but Riordan put Kronos lord of Titans and Cronos lord of Time into one person, so I can do what I want.)**

**Have a super duper fantastical magical week until I post again. (It might take a little longer now that school has started but I'll try my best to keep it weekly.)**

**-Wishsight**


	7. The Scary God

**Dislaimer: If I owned Percy Jackson, I would solve all their problems by sending in giant eagles (who ever gets this reference gets a sneak peak at Chapter 7 and a virtual bunny, not cookie, bunny.)**

**My excuse for being so late in posting is two words: Idon'thaveto justifywhatIdo. Just kidding, I blame it on Science Fair. If I were demi-god, use my powers to vaporize whoever came up with homework, followed by the genius that thought science fair was a good idea.**

**Enough ranting, on with the chapter!**

* * *

**One good thing had come out of that wall:** Mr. D was stuck outside of camp. It was decided that Shadow travel wouldn't work, because even the hypersonic air travel of the gods couldn't make it inside.

But, it was getting unusually dark. It was one in the afternoon and our only bright light was coming from the Greek fire torches we had stationed outside of every cabin. There were even campers assigned to guard each one, because you obviously can't change prophecies, but no use making the bad guys' jobs any easier. The sun had dimmed as if a giant storm cloud had passed over it. I hoped Apollo was all right. It was fun to trick new arrivals into sending him Iris-messages demanding poetry.

On the bright side, no one had killed himself or herself yet today, but the monsters along our borders weren't making things calm. They were having a great feast on the demigods corpses outside and, not wanting to risk more lives, we could only pray to every god and goddess.

"But they cannot help you now."

I turned. I have no idea where the voice came from, but everyone heard it. It reverberated like an echo, distinctly male, it beat Kronos in the list of the scariest voices. Instead of the sound of knives scraping together that made you cringe, it was so deep and powerful that it made me want to raise a white flag in surrender, before whoever was behind the voice even did anything.

Slowly, the world started to tilt back and forth and black spots were appearing in my field of vision. Someone has to help me. I was fighting back nausea.

_"They can't help you now."_ I'm not sure if it was all inside my head. I tried to walk, move anywhere. The mess hall had been full. Why was I suddenly alone? The dark spots in front of my eyes got deeper until all I could discern was shadows. I stumbled. No longer sure which way was up, it felt like I was both floating and being crushed under a ton of bricks. I tried to move but it was useless. My muscles ached and my head pounded.

I hear only one voice, strangely warped, calling my name. Concerned and scared, it called again. Was it Annabeth? Please let it be Annabeth. I try to reply, but I can't get my voice to work. The world went completely black and I feel like I'm falling. Is this want it's like to die. Sure feels like it, and I've had my fair share of near-death experiences. Am I dying? I always thought that my death would be in battle, or hoped that it would be old age, but this was terrible. Not even knowing, let alone seeing my enemy.

Just as suddenly as it had started, everything stopped. My head felt normal, so did my muscles. The nausea dissipated and I was left struggling to get to my feet, only to find that I had been tied to some wall. I opened my eyes, unaware that they had even closed, and I was met by a figure standing in the shadows surrounding me. He was laughing cruelly. His laugh was like those of every bully and monster I had ever met combined.

"Tell me Perseus Jackson, how does it feel when your loyalty is not returned? How does it feel to be left completely alone?"

The man walked up to me so his face was mere inches from mine. His face was unscathed and clean-shaven, and his features reflected fiendish delight, like this guy spent his spare time torturing kittens and puppies. He backed up and waved his hands.

My fist connected before I could even think. I had just punched myself in the jaw. I taste blood. This will most likely be the only time I'll ever wish I was wimpier. The man started to laugh again. I want to make him stop; I need to make it stop. My hands were tied together behind my back again, making me wonder if I had only imagined hitting myself. The chains connecting my wrists to something incredibly heavy clanked, as if they too were mocking my helplessness. I wanted to shout, command that he stops, ask that he stops, plead that he stops, but my lips felt like they had been sealed with godly superglue (that stuff never unsticks, believe me).

"If you only understood how much power I hold over you. I had no idea you were so easily humiliated Perseus. Everyone respects you now, or so it seems. How would you like to know that now that you are a hero, they watch you even more closely? They see all your faults. Some of them laugh behind your back. When a new camper arrives, they are astonished that this pathetic half-blood who trips over his own shoes and jumps when someone says "Boo" is the so-called savior of Olympus."

I'm not going to lie, that stings. I don't believe everything he says. I do not trip over my own shoes. Okay, yes I do. People don't laugh behind my back, do they? It's true that's what behind your back means, you don't know.

"And what of your failures Jackson?"

I started to see images that passed in a blur. First it was simply a pile of report cards with bold F's. Then an expulsion notice after another fell on top of the pile. A hand appeared to pick it up. I thought it would be my mom, but instead it was Gabe. He turned and waved the notice in my mother's face. He snarled something before slapping her.

I heard the man laughing again. "The savior of the world cannot even protect his own mother. Or anyone else for that matter."

I was in a dark hall now, filled with uncovered shrouds. The first two were Huntresses I recognized and ironically, even in death their skin glowed slightly with an aura of immortality. The first was Bianca DiAngelo smiling serenely. The second was Zoe Nightshade her forehead creased in determination. The next shroud was in fact a bed of grass; on it was Pan fading before my eyes. I started running down the hall, but the lines continued: Lee Fletcher, Castor along with other campers and satyrs that had died in the battle of the labyrinth. Then came those from the battle of Olympus. Beckendorf, Michel Yew, Selena…and countless others, some glowing like Huntresses and others with goat legs. Then there was Ethan Nakamura and Luke.

I hated myself intensely as I simply stood there. There were more bodies lining the halls, including those who had died yesterday, and even more with bodies shrouded in mist so I couldn't see who they were. But I new what they represented: people about to die. I didn't move forward, rather, I collapsed. It was too much.

Then a flicker of movement appeared in the corner of my watering eyes. Luke sat up in his shroud and I almost jumped out of my skin. He had no scar and colour returned to his skin. Then I heard Annabeth's voice. "You're a coward Percy Jackson." Then Wise Girl appeared next to me, but she lent a hand to Luke. He grabbed it and stepped out of the shroud. He put an arm around her waist as I stiffened. She leaned on his shoulder and they walked away. I made no move to stop them as they faded into the back of the hall.

"Always second best Percy, she chose you because you were only second best. Had Luke not felt betrayed and harbored Kronos. You would not have her. Fool" The man's voice made me want to scream, but the thing that finally unleashed my agony and rage was that a new body appeared in the sarcophagus.

It had Luke's scar and the face was pale with death, but I could tell who it was, and it wasn't Luke. It was me.

"You should have died many times by now. You have not survived because you are strong, but because you are lucky. Someone has always been there to save your skin. Perseus Jackson, no matter how many people are surrounding you, you will now be alone. You're luck has changed." The voice started to laugh again as I screamed.

My lips felt as if I had torn them open and I could taste blood, but still I screamed. Alone in the dark hall of all the people I could not save. Including myself.

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**Don't worry guys, it gets happier. Or does it? *wiggles eyebrows***

**I ****_promise _****to do my absolute best at getting updates to you faster. School sadly gets priority though. Nah... :-P**

**My questionable work ethic aside, farewell & 'till we meet again,**

**Wishsight**


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